Adbaston Community Concert Society
a concert in partnership with
the Manchester Camerata
and the Keyboard Charitable Trust
as part of the Stafford Music Festival 2018.
Biography
HANNAH ROBERTS is one of the outstanding 'cellists of her generation and was privileged to have studied with William Pleeth for nine years whilst attending the Yehudi Menuhin school.
Having won prizes in numerous prestigeous competitions and awards such as Shell LSO, BBC Young Musician, Jacqueline Du Pre Memorial and Pierre Fournier awards Hannah has gone on to give many concerto performances with leading orchestras, including the London Mozart Players, LSO, BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Halle., also making frequent broadcasts for BBC radio and recoding for ASV.
Festival appearances have included Chichester, Malvern, Beverley, ‘Beethovenfest’ and regular participation in the prestigious ‘Manchester International Cello Festival where she was invited to lead a world premiere of a cello sextet work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and performed on numerous occasions.
Internationally she has taken part part in the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles and numerous other festivals in Europe, and has an active schedule of solo and chamber music performances.
In addition to being principal ‘cellist of Manchester Camerata and her activities as soloist and chamber musician, Hannah is a committed and sought after teacher and is professor of cello at the RAM in London and the RNCM in Manchester, and is a visiting tutor for the University of Oxford.
She is honoured to have been awarded an FRNCM for her work helping to nurture upcoming ‘cellists, and enjoys working with some of the world’s most gifted young ‘cellists at prestigious international masterclasses each summer.
Mark Viner, Piano,
and Manchester Camerata principal musicians:
Caroline Pether, Violin
Eva Thorarinsdottir, Violin
Kay Stephen, Viola
Hannah Roberts, Cello
Dan Storer, Double Bass
Sunday 6th May 2018
5:30pm: St Michaels and All Angels Church, Adbaston, ST20 0QE
Caroline Pether
Biography
Caroline is the first violinist of the award-winning Zelkova Quartet and holds the Co-Leader position at Manchester Camerata, where she began a regular duo partnership with Camerata's esteemed principal cellist Hannah Roberts. Caroline regularly leads and directs the chamber orchestra Sinfonia Cymru and has been a violin tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire since September 2016. Caroline studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music with Professor Wen Zhou Li and holds an International Artist Diploma in Chamber Music as a member of the Zelkova Quartet.
As an avid chamber musician Caroline is passionate about her involvement with the Zelkova Quartet, winners of the 2017 St Martin's Chamber Music Competition and the 2014 Royal Overseas League Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble. Recent performances include recitals at St Martin in the Fields, St John's Smith Square and the Bridgewater Hall for the Manchester Midday Concert Society. The quartet have featured numerous times on BBC Radio 3.
Caroline has received a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and was also a recipient of a Postgraduate Performance Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund. She was an RNCM Concerto Competition winner and as a result performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto in Bridgewater Hall with Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Caroline has a particular fondness for the Australian comedy violin duo TwoSetViolin and playing the violin at her church on Sundays. Caroline plays on a violin made by the internationally acclaimed maker Stephan von Baehr.
Biography
As well as being Principal Bass with Sinfonia Viva, Dan is Co-Principal Bass with the Hallé Orchestra and Principal Bass with Manchester Camerata, and Lancashire Sinfonietta. As Principal Bass with the European Chamber Orchestra he has played in over fifty countries. Dan has appeared as guest principal in some of Britain’s leading orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and the London Mozart Orchestra.
As a chamber musician Dan has taken part in recitals, recordings and international Festivals with such artists as the Belcea Quartet, Carducci Quartet, Ensemble 360, Haffner Wind Ensemble, Katona Guitar Duo and Simon Mulligan, and is a regular member of the Camerata Ensemble.
Mark Viner
Biography
Mark Viner is recognised as one of the most exciting British concert pianists of his generation and is becoming increasingly well-known for his bold championing of unfamiliar pianistic terrain. Born in 1989, he began playing at the age of 11 and two years later was awarded a scholarship to enter the Purcell School of Music. There he studied with Tessa Nicholson for the next five years. Another scholarship then took him to the Royal College of Music where he studied with Niel Immelman for six years and graduated with both first class honours in a Bachelor of Music degree and the Sarah Mundlak Memorial Prize for Piano for having gained the highest mark in the year for his final recital and, following a bursary from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, a distinction in Master of Performance.
After winning 1st prize at the Alkan-Zimmerman International Piano Competition in Athens, Greece in 2012, his official début recital in the Hellenic capital was hailed by the press as the most important musical event of 2012 while engagements at home and abroad have flourished. Having given acclaimed performances at London’s St. James's Church Piccadilly, St. John’s Smith Square and Wigmore Hall, engagements in his hometown of Oxford include recitals at the Holywell Music Room, the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building and the Sheldonian Theatre where he made his début with the Oxford Philomusica Orchestra under the batôn of Marios Papadopoulos. On another occasion he was invited to play for the royal visit of H.R.H. Prince Charles.
Invitations to festivals include the ProPiano Hamburg and Raritäten der Klaviermusik, Husum in Germany, Indian Summer in Levoča, Slovakia, and the Cheltenham Music Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival in the United Kingdom, while radio broadcasts include recitals aired on Deutschlandfunk and interviews on BBC Radio Oxford.
Aside from a busy schedule of teaching and performances he is also a published writer and his advocacy for the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan has led to his election as Chairman of the Alkan Society in the United Kingdom. As a recording artist, his début recording of music by Sigismond Thalberg on the Piano Classics label has garnered great critical acclaim while his forthcoming release on the same label is of the music of Franz Liszt.
'From Viner’s fingers the iridescent showers of notes cascade with scintillating exuberance [...] a blazing young British talent' – Gramophone Magazine
'Here Viner manages a near impossible feat, bringing the melody to the fore with incredibly natural phrasing [...] The five stars are for Viner, who wins his own duel with Thalberg' – Pianist Magazine
'Viner is superbly adept in this repertoire [...] Very promising' – BBC Music Magazine
This concert is supported by the Keyboard Trust www.keyboardtrust.org
Biography
Eva was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and began playing the violin at the age of three.
She is a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Northern College of Music where she studied with Maciej Rakowski. She graduated from the college in 2010 with an International Artist Diploma in Solo Performance.
Recently a Nordic Soloist Prize finalist, Eva is also a prize winner in numerous International Violin Competitions including winning the 3rd Prize as well as the Audience Prize in the prestigious Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition in 2012.
As a soloist, Eva has appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican performing Max Richter’s ‘Memoryhouse’.
She has also performed with other acclaimed orchestras and ensembles such as the Manchester Camerata, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic and recently performed with Sinfonia Cymru at the ‘Vibrate Festival’ in Brasov, Romania. She also has a special collaboration with the Wycombe Sinfonia where she has performed the Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky Concertos.
For the past three years, Eva held the Principal 2nd Violin position at the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester but has recently left her post to concentrate on her solo playing and chamber music collaborations.
Currently, she is focusing on a project which will see her record the complete Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas whilst also exploring contemporary music and folk tunes from her native Iceland.
Eva plays on an 1845 Joseph Rocca violin, previously owned by the great Alfredo Campoli.
Biography
Born in Aberdeen, Viola player Kay divides her time primarily as violist with the Gildas Quartet, violinist and violist with the Jacquin Trio in addition to playing with Manchester Camerata. As a member of these ensembles she has been a recipient of numerous awards including the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Prize and the Audience Engagement Prize at the Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition, Graz. She has been supported by the City Music Foundation, the Tunnell Trust and twice by the Park Lane Group, performing in major UK venues including Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Cadogan Hall and frequently on BBC Radio 3.
Kay has been invited as guest violist with the Elias Quartet and the Edinburgh Quartet as well as playing regularly with Ensemble Deva, resident ensemble of the Storyhouse, Chester, and the recently formed Manchester Collective. Frequently performing as principal viola with the Manchester Camerata, she has also appeared as principal with Camerata Alma Viva, as guest co-principal with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Britten Sinfonia. She is a member of multi-genre ensemble Propellor, currently in residence at Snape Maltings.
Kay also freelances on the violin, and has performed with groups such as Red Note Ensemble, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Halle.
Programme:
Schubert : Adagio and Rondo Concertante
in F major D. 487
Alkan: Andante avec sourdines Op. 13/3
Alkan: Deuxième Concerto da Camera, Op. 10
Schubert : Piano Quintet in A (Trout)
Tickets for this Performance, £12
at the door or in advance via email: roger.st21@gmail.com or phone 01785-850677
If you are coming to this concert, please note that there are significant roadworks in the area at the moment, so please allow extra travelling time. If you are coming from the east, the following suggestions should help you have a trouble free, if slightly longer journey to the concert venue in Adbaston . All other routes remain unaffected.
For people coming to the concert from directions Stafford/Stone and M6 Jn14, optimum and recommended diversions are:
EITHER
Take B5405 W from Great Bridgeford (or A519 from Eccleshall) to Woodseaves, then take High Offley Road* to High Offley via Shebdon to Adbaston.
OR
Continue NW from Eccleshall on B5026 through Croxton to Wetwood/FairOak and come S on the Langot Lane which goes directly to Adbaston.
